The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1887-06-01

vi
Earnsrs-o Objections to Artificial Leveliug.
chieapo Iu.r. 0eeua.
mime housa shall constitute n day'p
work, except on Saturday, whom all work
shall BIO suspended OF IL NJ. ;:work 10 start
at 7 A. NJ; minimum wages for bricklayers
and stone.maaons to be As cents per hour
1t Is not q labor league that Ia demanding
these liberal terms; It 10 an association Of
employers that Is Offering them. In the
boyhood oil men who are yet hardly In
middle age 1t would have been held In.
credible that workmen should be able 10
earn SO so in a week OF five and a hall
days, the working day being counted as
nine hours. Most Of tho mon who have
risen from the rank OF employee to that OF
employer worked from daylight to dark
during the best years OF their lives, and
were glad to make half such wages.
1t Is tho best sign Of the times that the
price OF labor Is upward, the cost oil living
downward, and the hours Of labor short.
ening. The prosperity Of the country de.
ponds upon a general diffusion OF the
means OF buying what manufacturers
make and what merchants offer for sale,
The beat market is q home market, and
the activity Of n home market depends
upon the ability OF the home population
TO buy, and the industrial claas is the ma.
jority OF the home population, 80 that
makers and sellers Of goods arc interested
in the w%ell.being Of the majority. II this
plain truth were better understood the
mission OF the labor agitator would soon
end. It Is to be acknowledged that mono.
poles are often short-sighted, often prone
to exact much from and give little to labor,
but monopolies are few, and are in pro.
gress OF reduction TO fewer. The great
mass OF the traders OF this country are far
too shrewd to kill the bird that LAYS the
golden egg, and the industrial class-to
which more than nine-tenths OF us belong
lis that bird. Enlightened selfehness, ss
we'll as humane desire, protects tho indus
trial against the trading class. Moreover,
the . industrial class Is the law.making
class, and therefore would need little pro-
lection and enlightenment as to its own
interests.
Bat wages can only be paid by men who
make q profit on the sale OF that which
the labor for which they pay produces.
When there ia no profit on sales msnufsc-
turing ceases and labor becomes a drug,
The men who direct labor, which is to say
tho men who pay wages, must be left to
shape their own ends, and OF the most i'm
portsnt OF their own ends Is to gain a
steady, intelligent, and honest eupply OF
labor. Experience has Gbundantly proven
that labor can not be managed by an en-
ployer and a walking delegate at one and
the same time. It has also a~bundsntly
proven that good labor can not be secured
by any leveiing operation. Men are born
mentally and physically unequal; n
man can do more work in q day than an.
otheri d third can both Go more and do II
better than either Of the other two, and
therefore ia worth more than either oil
them. ANY artificial l~eyeling OF prices ia
81 the cost of thS hgtter Eortmen, and
also at th< coS1 o. an e nployar. There.
lore the naSt0 Hasons and b~ricklayers,
from whose pronunciamento the first sen.
tence of this aCticle IVES quoted, agreed
upon a minimum price OF labor; the max.
imum Is discretionary. 1t would seem
that the wisdom oil such an agseement is
unquestionRbls.
But because the woree labor ia slways
discontented, always intriguing TO obtain
Tor itself the price OF better labor, and has
found means to promote strikes and go
terroIize employers into concession to its
unjust demands, the Master Masons and
BncklayeIs' Association DEGREES that
foremen in the employ OF its members
shall be devoted to their interests alone,
and not to the interests OF any combina.
ton or league formed for the artificial lev.
cling oil wages. And it inaists that the
walking delegate must 50, and the steward
oil labor eze.ciss the dutieg Of stewardship
elsewhere than on the backgrounds. all
this ia really as much a step toward the
liberation OF labor from an overwhelming
tyranny SO 1t is a step toward restoring
employers TO that freedom OF action with.
out which no business can be proftablv
managed.
That resolution in the platform OF the
association which afirms, "the laws Of the
State shall prevailin regard TO apprentice,
and not thedict8tGs Of labor Organizations"
is one that every citizen should Join in
supporting. Ii the dictates OF labor or
eanisatlons' are TO Bupersede 1.-THE lava of
the State in the employment OF appren.
tices, why should not the dictates OF an
employers organization supersede the
laws Of the State in matters that would
work injuriously to labor2 The safety OF
the body Of the people c~onnists in the sub
mission oil every member Of it to the law
Of the land. Beside which, 10 what pur-
poae was it thata body Of men once pledged
their lives, fortunes and sacred bonors,
supported aiterwa.d by a nation which &C.
tually rieked life and fortune, 10 e declars.
tion Of principles, Of which the foremost
was that all men were endowed with the
rights Of life, liberty and pursuit Of hap.
piness, ii an olIgarchy ~ prevent a
human being from the Tree choice OF, and
educate IN, a trade by which he can BUD